Chapter 13

Chapter 13

Because of the many wild and unbelievable things that Tarrin had seen and done since taking up the quest to find the Firestaff years ago, Tarrin was an extremely hard man to impress. Amazing magic was dry and dusty to him. Exotic locales were boring, as everywhere he went and where he lived could be considered an exotic locale. Most magical beasts were a copper a tenpair. Even gods were little more than episodes of increased interest.

But Fireflash impressed him from the moment they met.

At first, the little juvenile drake was almost effete in its attitude, rather vain and fully expecting to be the center of all attention, which it seemed to disdain with an uninterested turn of its head. But that didn’t last long, and Tarrin suspected that it was an act that the animal put up in order to get Tarrin’s attention. After he used Druidic magic to talk to Fireflash, to set down the house rules, he found the drake to be surprisingly intelligent, smart enough to understand spoken language, playful, loving, and very loyal. Sapphire had talked to him before dropping him off at his house, and told him that he was being placed in a home where he was wanted and needed, a place where he would have no shortage of children to play with, as well as accommodating laps and shoulders and ample opportunities to learn. Fireflash was at that awkward age in any sentient being’s development where he was caught between the needs of a child and the motivations of an adult, and in Tarrin’s house he would find plenty of activities to satisfy both his childish needs of play and love and inclusion and his adult impulses to learn and have an established place and contribute to the well-being of the home. Tarrin was impressed by the drake’s adolescent mind, a mind that was very hungry to learn. The drake understood Wikuni already, but had not learned how to speak quite yet--but not for lack of trying. Speaking humanoid languages was extremely difficult for drakes, for the shape of their mouths made it difficult, if not impossible, to make some of the sounds the humanoids did. Fireflash had been practicing for nearly a year, and could manage to hiss out some Wikuni words. All in all, Wikuni was a good language for an animal like a drake to learn first, since some of the Wikuni themselves were possessed of similarly shaped mouths. There were many words in Wikuni that included hisses, sigh-like sounds, and even yips and near-barks, to accommodate those mammalian and reptillian Wikuni who had very long muzzles.

Not everyone in the house would be comfortable speaking in Wikuni to the drake, so Tarrin cheated and implanted the other three languages that Fireflash would be apt to hear within his house; Sulasian, Selani, and Sha’Kar. It took Fireflash about an hour to get his balance back after that, because implanting languages with Druidic magic always left one dizzy and a little disoriented afterwards, but Tarrin did that down in his study, to keep the drake out of the paws of the cubs.

But what impressed him most about Fireflash was how well he integrated with the rest of his family, almost immediately. The three cubs were absolutely smitten with him immediately after he introduced him to them, and Fireflash seemed just as smitten with them. Everyone liked him, because he was polite and affectionate, and he liked the others, because he thought they were nice. After Tarrin gave the three cubs a stern lecture about how to treat the drake so no one would get hurt, they all ran out and started playing, and they were very careful to be gentle with him.

Tarrin watched from the porch for a while, as the four of them played a game of tag out in the yard--which was really just Fireflash chasing the girls around as they giggled and carried on--and he was satisfied that the cubs wouldn’t hurt Fireflash accidentally, and Fireflash would be careful not to hurt them. He’d given the drake permission to lay into one of the cubs if she hurt him in any way, which would be a very effective reminder for the cub about how to be gentle. Then again, all it would take would be one blast of that paralyzing gas in the face, and the offending cub would be chastised most effectively without doing any harm. Tarrin had had Fireflash try it on him, and he could personally attest that it worked. He’d been unable to move for nearly five minutes after getting a face full of the strangely sweet-smelling greenish gas. The paralysis could last for over an hour if it was used one a human, but against a Were-cat, who had a powerful metabolism that could quickly burn out any kind of invading foreign agent, it only lasted about five minutes.

But five minutes of paralysis would be a very powerful teaching tool for any cub that angered or hurt Fireflash enough for him to retaliate. It would be a terrifying experience for a child.

A day that Tarrin had intended to use to study his Dwarven artifacts, which were sitting down in his study, had instead become a day of getting acquainted with his drake, and letting him get to know Tarrin and his family. But that afternoon, Tarrin and Jula had time to start going over the Dwarven artifacts, with Fireflash in attendance, sitting on the table and watching curiously as they examined objects, read the angular runes, and argued about their meanings. Fireflash was a very intelligent little drake, and he seemed to enjoy being in attendance when Tarrin and Jula did their studies.

“Tarrin!” Elke called from the top of the stairs, and the sound of her boots was loud as she came down into his cavernous underground study. “Where are you, son?”

“I’m at the main table!” he called back, since several bookshelves concealed the central area from the staircase.

“You need to teach me Ungardt,” Jula mused absently as she turned the shield over and studied its outside face.

“It’s an easy language to learn,” he told her as Elke came around the bookshelves. She wore a tunic and a pair of old leather breeches, like always, and had a book under her arm.

“Can you do me a favor and send this to Jenna?” she asked. “She wants it.”

“I can take it to her tomorrow,” he answered. “I’ll have all day.”

“You don’t have any lessons tomorrow?” He shook his head. “Good, then you can take us to see Tomas and Janine,” she announced. “I’m sure Janette wouldn’t mind a visit.” She looked at the drake. “Is that a drake?”

Tarrin nodded to her without looking up. “Sapphire gave him to me. His name is Fireflash.”

The golden drake looked up at him when he heard his name, his eyes intent and his head tilted slightly to the side in curiosity. “Fireflash, this is my mother, Elke,” he addressed the drake in Sulasian. “Go say hello.”

The drake unfurled its wings and launched itself the few spans between itself and Elke’s shoulder, and then climbed around her back and neck to her other shoulder. Elke almost giggled when the drake stuck its boxy nose in her ear and snuffled, reaching up and pushing the drake’s snout out of her ear. “He’s a friendly little thing,” she told him.

“He understands Sulasian, so be careful what you say around him,” he warned.

“He doesn’t understand Ungardt?” Tarrin shook his head. “That’s fine. Since when do I speak Sulasian when I’m talking to you, son?”

“You know it drives Jesmind crazy.”

“Then she should learn the language,” Elke said diffidently. Elke had strong views about that; if someone wanted to understand her, then they’d better speak her language. The only exception she had ever made was with her husband Eron, who had never really learned Ungardt outside of some words and phrases. She spoke Sulasian when it was necessary, but if she was dealing with someone she knew spoke Ungardt, she did not speak any other language to that person.

Tarrin was about to say something as Elke set Fireflash back on the table, but Triana simply appeared not two steps to Elke’s right, which made his mother give out a cry of surprise and flinch away. When Triana did what she did--dimension walking, she called it--there was no warning she was about to show up, and Tarrin couldn‘t sense her approaching. The only warning he got was a sudden surge in the Weave that happened whenever Druidic magic opened that invisible hole between dimensions that Triana used to enter and exit that extra-dimensional place, as the latent and pooled magical energy was attracted to the breach the same way it was attracted to Weavespinners. “Gods, Triana, warn us when you do that!” Elke exclaimed.

Tarrin glanced up at Triana, and immediately frowned. Her expression was grim, and her scent, which had just reached him, was tense and apprehensive. “What’s wrong, mother?” he asked.

“It’s bad,” she told him. “The Hierachs have asked me to deal with this Stragos Bane.”

Tarrin remembered that name, that Were-kin hunter who had attacked Haley in Dayisè several months ago.

“He’s killed almost a hundred Were-kin in just two months. They’re all afraid to leave the Heartwood now, and the Druids can’t do anything about him.”

“Why not?”

“He’s got some kind of artifact or magical device that nullifies magic,” she answered darkly. “You can use magic, but any time you send a spell at him, it just dies. The two Druids that tried to deal with him with magic were killed.”

“Why would they send you, Triana?” Elke asked. “If he’s killed that many Were-kin, wouldn’t it be smarter to send some other kind of creature? Can’t they ask an Ogre or a Giant to deal with him?”

“They did,” she growled. “They asked a Wood Giant to try to stop Stragos Bane, but Bane killed her.”

Tarrin frowned. Wood Giants were not easy to kill. This Stragos Bane had to be formidable to kill a Wood Giant.

“Then why send you?” Elke pressed.

“Because they don’t have anyone left,” she said with a dark frown. “I may be Were, but I’m a lot older than most of the ones he’s killed. It won’t be easy, but I should be able to deal with him. Permanently,” she said, flexing her claws ominously.

“That wouldn’t be wise, Triana,” Jula said from her chair. “I’ve heard the stories, straight from Haley. This Were hunter has some kind of magic that puts Were-kin at a major disadvantage. You shouldn’t even try, not without removing that advantage from him.”

“And if I don’t do it, who will?” Triana challenged darkly.

She gave her the most cursory of glances. “If you want to deal with a rampaging monster armed to the teeth with magical weaponry and possessing something making him immune to magical attacks, then you send something that can’t be hurt by magic itself,” she reasoned calmly. “That puts them on an even playing field. It makes it easy when your champion is invulnerable to normal weaponry as well as magical weaponry.”

Tarrin pieced together the clues instantly after that hint. “Shiika!” he said suddenly.

Jula nodded. “Shiika could disassemble this Stragos Bane without breaking a nail,” she said, looking at Triana. “Or any of her children, for that matter. I’m sure if we ask her nicely, Shiika might lend us someone to take care of this Were hunter.”

Tarrin put a paw to his amulet immediately. “Shiika,” he called.

There was a lengthy pause, then came the reply. “What do you want?” she asked shortly. “And make it quick. I’m busy.”

“I need to talk to you,” he announced. “And it’s important.”

“Oh, bother!” she snapped, and then there was a sudden magical disturbance in his study. Shiika appeared on the far side of the table, wearing a sheer, sleek nightgown that had no neckline, but that didn’t matter, for the garment was so diaphanous that it was all but transparent. She was in her Demon form, with her wings, and that frilly, feminine garment looked strangely out of place on her, despite her breathtaking beauty. Her unnatural scent struck Tarrin like a hammer, but he managed to distance himself from it quickly and effectively. “What is it, Tarrin? I’m busy!”

“Doing what?” Tarrin asked lowly, blatantly looking her up and down.

“Doing what good little Demons do when they need more cambisi,” she replied with a chilling leer. “Now step it up and get your business on the table, and we‘ll discuss my compensation for this favor. I have no time for chitchat.”

“How do you know we want something?” Elke asked.

“Please,” she said scathingly, looking at the tall Ungardt. “Why else would Tarrin contact me? He never calls me unless he needs something.”

“Tarrin,” Elke said disapprovingly. “That’s abusing your relationship with her. You were taught better than that.”

Tarrin waved his mother off. “The Hierarchs have a problem,” he told her.

“That? I wondered when someone would think to ask me to deal with it,” she said with a wicked little chuckle. “Which one of you geniuses realized that Stragos Bane can’t do much more than spit on me and use harsh language?”

“Actually, that was Jula,” Tarrin told her honestly.

“Really? Maybe I should have kept you, girl,” she said, looking in her direction. “You’d have been a good cambisi.”

Jula shuddered, but said nothing.

“I’m too busy to go human hunting,” she announced. “But I have daughters who can take care of it just as easily as me. So, I’ll send one of my Alus to kill Stragos Bane. Now, what do I get in payment for this magnaminous gesture?”

“The gratitude of the Hierarchs,” Tarrin replied. “And that’s no paltry thing.”

“Bah,” she snorted. “Gratitude from a bunch of half-rate magicians too afraid of the sun to come out from under the canopy? Forget it.” She tapped her cheek with a long, slender finger. “Alright, here’s the deal. I send an Alu to kill Bane. In payment, you owe me a favor, Tarrin Kael. And I keep any magical artifacts my daughter strips off the body.”

“Not quite,” Tarrin countered. “You send an Alu to kill Stragos Bane. You get a favor from me only if she kills him, and she‘s more than free to take anything she wants off his corpse. And the favor can be no greater a service than you’ve done for me today,” he added quickly. “And if your daughter fails to kill Bane, the deal is off.“ He was well aware of the dangers of making a deal with a Demon, but he was rather sure he had limited the damage.

“A service no greater than the service I’m providing you today?” she pressed.

“No more, no less,” he affirmed.

“Deal,” she said immediately, offering her hand to him. He took it and shook it, but his eyes were locked on hers, and the dreadful look of anticipation within them.

Jula burst into laughter.

“What?” Shiika asked her sharply.

“I do believe you were just taken, your Imperial Majesty,” she announced.

“How so? Tarrin just agreed to perform a service for me when nobody else is capable of it.”

“No, Tarrin just agreed to arrange to have someone else perform that task for him,” she said with a wicked smile. “No more, no less, remember? You’re not doing the deed, you’re having someone else do it for you. The service you’re providing is nothing more than acting as an agent. And the service isn’t even guaranteed. So long as Tarrin has someone else perform this task when you call in your favor, he fulfills the terms of the contract. This replacement doesn’t even have to be qualified to perform the task. He just has to agree to do it.”

Shiika’s arched eyebrows knitted, then a look of indignant anger stormed over her face. She glared at Tarrin hotly, her wings bristling, then she burst into chagrined laughter and scratched the back of her head absently. “So you did,” she admitted. “That’s what I get for underestimating you, Tarrin. Next time, I won’t be so hasty to close a contract with you.”

“Then you agree?” Triana asked.

“I do what I agree to do,” she told the Were-cat with a steady look. “I’ll dispatch Shun to deal with this Stragos Bane. Where was he last seen?”

“Jerinhold,” Triana answered.

Tarrin’s ears picked up and he looked at her. The last time he’d heard anything about this Bane person, he was in Dayisè, and that was some months ago. Was he traveling to Suld?

“Then consider the matter handled,” she said dismissively. “I’ll send her out as soon as I get back. Is there anything else?”

“No, not really,” Tarrin answered, a bit worried. “Thank you, Shiika.”

“Then I’ll talk to you later,” she said, folding her wings behind her back, and then she simply vanished.

Elke slapped Tarrin on the back of his head. “I thought I taught you manners, boy!” she snapped at him. “You don’t use people like that!”

“Mother, you--”

“Only talking to her when you need something!” she said in outrage. “Why not put her on a leash!”

“Mother, she’s a Demon!” Tarrin shouted at her, making her come up short. “If I could trust her, I’d be nice to her!”

“Tarrin’s right in treating her like that, Elke,” Triana said in support. “Especially that one. When he made that deal, he was putting his immortal soul on the table. He just outbargained her, this time.”

“Shiika’s not exactly a friend, Elke,” Jula mirrored. “She’s not evil, and she is an ally, but she’s very dangerous. We’re right in not trusting her.”

“Hmph,” Elke snorted. “I just think she needs a friend, and she wouldn’t act that way.”

“Elke, I love you like a sister, but trust me,” Triana told her bluntly. “You have no idea what you’re talking about. Shiika‘s a Succubus. She doesn‘t understand the concept of a friend. To her, there is nothing but people she owns, and people she doesn‘t. Tarrin puts everything on the line every time he deals with her, because if he makes just one mistake, she‘ll strike a bargain with him that puts him under her control. Once she gets that kind of a hold on him, she can take his soul. That is what she‘s after, Elke.”

Elke was quiet, giving Triana a serious look.

“This isn’t Ungardt, Elke,” Triana told her. “In this case, you don’t extend full hospitality to your friends, because Shiika is not our friend. She’ll help us when it’s in her interests, but she’s never a friend.”

Elke had an uncertain expression on her face, which for the first time ever, showed her age. She was only a year from her fiftieth birthday, but her Ungardt heritage made the advancing of the years very difficult to take hold on her. His grandfather, Anrak, had been in his seventies, but was still as burly as a bear and highly active before he was killed. Ungardt didn’t show age the way other human races did, except for the appearance of gray hair. With her mouth pursed like that, the fine wrinkles around her mouth and eyes were pronounced, making her look nearly her age. Any other time, she looked like she was in her late twenties.

“Well, I don’t like it,” Elke announced. “So, don’t forget, son. Tomorrow morning.”

“I’ll be there.”

Elke went back upstairs, and Triana looked expectantly at Tarrin. “We’re going to Suld tomorrow,” he told her. “It seems like everyone wants a piece of my free time.”

“It looks like it,” she agreed. “I’m going to go tell the Hierarchs about this. I’ll come to Suld tomorrow and tell you what’s going on.”

“Alright. Safe journey.”

She used her Druidic magic to open an invisible gateway into that dimensional space she used to travel, and then vanished when she stepped into it.

Tarrin looked at the drake, who was staring at him. “What?”

It shrugged, then chirped lowly and went back to looking at one of the stone tablets.

Tarrin first thought that the trip to Suld would be another family affair, but he was surprised to find out that he was wrong. Jesmind and Jasana had already planned to go hunting, the first serious hunting of the spring, which was important for Jasana’s education. Kimmie intended to take the twins out on their very first hunt herself, just not going after the big game that Jesmind and Jasana were after. This was critical education, and Tarrin fully approved of it and agreed that they should do that instead of go to Suld. Mist wasn’t interested in going, after he contacted her, since this was the time when many animals were coming out of hibernation and it was an extremely important time for Were-cats to teach cubs about hunting. Jula was more interested in studying the Dwarven artifacts than going to Suld, since she could Teleport to Suld any time she wanted. That left Tarrin with only Fireflash as a traveling companion as he left the house and used the gateway on the edge of the meadow to take him to his parents’ farm.

The morning was full of surprises, it seemed, as he entered his parents’ sturdy farmhouse and was bowled over by the foul stench of Demon. And not just any Demon, but Shiika herself!

He rushed through the door to find the oddest sight to greet him. Shiika was sitting at the table, sipping at a cup of tea with Eron as Elke set a pitcher of chilled milk down beside a small jar of honey. She was in her Demonic form, and the bottom spikes and lower membranes of her wings were bent against the floor. She wasn’t alone, either. The blond Anayi, the only of Shiika’s halfbred daughters Tarrin knew by name, was sitting in the fourth chair across from her mother.

“Good morning,” Shiika said amiably, holding up her cup. “Tea?”

“What are you doing here, Shiika?” Tarrin asked with narrowed eyes and an extremely dangerous tone of voice, all but one step from flying across the room and evicting the Demoness personally.

“Having breakfast,” she said in an unflappable manner. “I hear you’re on your way to Suld.”

“Mother, what is she doing here?” Tarrin demanded.

“I had Jenna invite her for me,” she answered. “And it’s none of your business why she’s here.”

Tarrin was about to really let his mother have it, but he knew better. Many thought Tarrin was stubborn, but he actually got it from Elke. She’d made up her mind, and that was that…there was nothing he could do or say to change her mind, about whatever it was she was doing with this dangerous Demoness. But it still made him very angry, because he was very worried that the cunning, morally void Succubus was going to try something with his mother to try to get a hold on him. He had to labor to control himself, falling back on the mental exercises Allia had taught him. “I’ll wait outside for you,” he said in a low, growling tone, then he pinned his gaze on Shiika. “And I’m going to warn you right now, Shiika. If you do anything to my parents, if I even think you’re trying something, I’ll come visit you in Yar Arak with my sword in one paw and my staff in the other. Do you understand me?”

“Temper, temper,” she said mildly, but there was a wicked enjoyment in her eyes.

That was just about all it took. With a savage growl, Tarrin took one step forward and seized Shiika by the neck in his huge paw, then hauled her out of her chair and hoisted her up into the air. Without even thinking, he Summoned his black-bladed eastern sword, closing his paw around it before it had even materialized. He whipped the edge of that weapon through the air and stopped it just a hair’s breadth from the delicate skin of her forehead, right between her eyes. “Would you like to rephrase that, or do you want to stay with that remark?” he asked in a horridly evil tone.

The malicious delight in her eyes was instantly replaced with sincere fear. She made no move to grab his wrist, did not move at all, did not do anything that would provoke him in any way. “If you had a sense of humor, I wouldn’t have to say anything,” she said in a carefully neutral tone, unwilling to openly apologize, unwilling to bend her pride, even when her life was hanging in the balance.

“Boy, you’d better put her down and back off!” Elke snapped at him. “You don’t spill the blood of an invited guest!”

He wanted to, but the urge to finish her off was nearly overpowering. He struggled against that dreadful desire for a long moment, then finally managed to regain control of his anger, and thereby regain control of himself. He opened his paw and dropped her unceremoniously, struggling to fight back the power of his anger, until he was certain he wasn’t going to lunge forward and take off her head. He laid the blunt side of his sword on his shoulder and gave Shiika a very cold stare, but Shiika’s eyes weren’t locked on him, as he felt they should.

They were fixed on the sword.

He watched those eyes widen, then gawk, and then become shockingly demure within the span of a heartbeat. She assumed a very vulnerable posture, her hands folded before her, and folded her wings behind her and kept them still. “I’m sorry,” she said in a meek tone. “I should know better than to make fun of you when you’re being serious, but you don’t have to be so defensive. I came here at Elke’s invitation, and I don’t dishonor a host who invites me out of generosity.”

Tarrin was looking for the hole in that statement, but it was obviously too subtle for him to detect. Why the sudden change? And why the interest in the sword? Tarrin glanced at it, and saw nothing that might make her do that. It did have a unique magical presence, for it was an artifact, was once the personal weapon of a god. That god was dead, but the simple fact that it had been a god’s personal weapon didn’t change its status one bit. It was simply an artifact with no power, aside from the rather unique abilities it had had before it had been transformed into an artifact.

Then again, there was…something. He couldn’t quite put his claw on it, but there was a strange power hiding inside the sword, a power he had never really sensed before. A…dormant power. There was no way for him to tell how strong it was, because the sense of it was extremely vague, and it almost seemed to actively try to hide from him, cloaking itself in the ambient magic of Tarrin’s own magical presence.

Niami had said that the sword may have power, because it was an artifact, and that it was Tarrin’s responsibility to keep the weapon, that it would accept no other. But since he had never sensed anything from it before, he thought that she’d been wrong--after all, she did say she wasn’t entirely certain about it. About the sword, and about any powers that he might have, given his unique state of existence. But she’d been wrong about him, so maybe she’d been wrong about the sword.

Or maybe not.

There really was no way to tell, so there was no real reason to worry about it.

He sent the sword back to his bedroom even as he let it go, gave Shiika one more good malevolent stare, then turned and went out onto the porch.

He stayed out there for a good half an hour, wandering among the barns and the brewing house, letting Fireflash get familiar with the area as he calmed down. He had no idea what Elke was doing, but she obviously had no idea what she was dealing with. Elke didn’t understand Shiika’s nature the way he did, nor did he think she knew just how the Demon came to own people. Being nice to her wasn’t going to do any good. She’d just use it to gain control over her, and then it would be no matter to take possession of her soul.

Or she would have. Now that Tarrin knew what was going on, he’d keep a very close eye on his mother and make sure it didn’t happen, even if it came to assassinating the second ruler of Yar Arak in as many years. Shiika fully knew that not only he was capable of it, but he’d have no qualms about sending her back to the Abyss one body part at a time.

The door opened at the farmhouse, and the blond Anayi came out. She walked over towards him as he moved to intercept her, and then they stopped a pace or so away from each other. “I think you really scared her,” she told him. Of all Shiika’s children, Anayi was the one he knew the best, and was probably the only one that he’d be willing to engage in conversation. She was much more independent than the rest of her sisters, and more than once she’d directly helped him out of a tight spot. Because of that, Tarrin had some respect for the blond halfbreed, a respect that translated into favorable treatment among the Demons that the gods permitted to remain on Sennadar. He’d kill all the others without blinking, but he’d have reservations about killing Anayi.

That was probably why Shiika brought her along…to put her between him and herself if he reacted violently to her presence in his parents’ house. Shiika wasn’t above such a depraved, cowardly act.

“She’d better be afraid,” he snorted. “I’ll take her head off the instant I think she’s trying to take my mother, Anayi. Make that abundantly clear to her.”

“I think she got the message,” she said with a light smile, then her expression turned serious. “You’ve been holding back on us, I see.”

“Over what?”

“That sword. It’s an artifact, Tarrin.”

“I know. I made it.”

She gave him a surprised look.

“Well, I sort of did,” he told her. “I don’t remember. But I was told that I created it to fight Val. It survived the destruction of Gora Umadar, and since I’m the one who made it, it’s my duty to take care of it.”

“I almost wet my pants when I felt it, Tarrin,” she told him. “It has a divine aura. Demons can sense that, and trust me, we’re very afraid of that kind of thing.”

“Good. Now I know what to stick in Shiika’s face whenever she’s annoying me.”

“Don’t be too hard on her, Tarrin,” she said as they started walking towards the brew house, away from the house. “She really didn’t come here to do anything. Elke invited her to breakfast, and that intrigued her enough to accept. Why did she do it?”
“Mother’s curious about Shiika, I suppose. That, or she’s decided that if nobody else is going to be nice to her, then she will. She’s like that.”

“She’s a strong woman,” Anayi said appreciatively. “I feel sorry for her husband.”

“Don’t,” he said. “Father may seem mild and unassuming, but you’ve never seen him in action, Anayi. He’s the one that rules that house, and don’t ever think that he doesn’t. He simply lets mother do as she feels best, but he’ll step in and set her right if he thinks she’s doing wrong.”

“Ah, he rules from behind the scenes, just as mother did before you killed the last Emperor.”

“He’s the kind of leader that doesn’t interfere too much,” he told her. “Gentle guidance, that’s his style, even back when he was an officer in the Rangers.”

“He sounds like the kind of man I’d like to get to know better,” she said with a curiously thoughtful expression, a finger to her sharp little chin.

“Mother would tear out your hair,” he warned with a chuckle. “About fifteen years ago, one of the women in the village made eyes at father where Elke could see it. She didn’t sit down for about five days afterwards.”

“She seems the jealous type.”

“It had nothing to do with jealousy,” he told her. “It was because the other woman wasn’t willing to do anything more than flirt.”

“Excuse me?”

“You don’t know my parents very well, Anayi,” he chuckled. “Neither of them are jealous, because they love and trust each other so much that they know better. When Suli made eyes at father, mother challenged her to put up or shut up. Suli was scandalized and said a few very unwise words to mother, so mother thrashed her.”

Anayi laughed delightedly.

“No woman dared make eyes at father after that. Not because Elke was jealous, but because she’d make them fufill the promises they were making.”

Anayi laughed again. “Oh, Tarrin, you have no idea how lucky you are to have parents like them,” she told him. “Growing up here must have been heavenly.”

“I have no complaints at all,” he said with a sincere nod. “How have things been for you?”

“Frustrating,” she said with a frown. “Mother still won’t teach me Wizard magic. She says that I’m not ready yet, but I can cast some of the simple spells and cantrips, and I taught myself,” she said defiantly.

Tarrin looked her up and down.

“What?” she asked, looking up at him curiously.

“You look like an adult to me,” he told her. “If you’re not happy with what your mother’s doing, I don’t see any reason why you’d stay.”

“Leave? Leave home?” she said, seemingly mortified by the idea. “I can’t do that!”

“Why?”

She floundered for a moment. “Because it’s home!”

“Home is many things, Anayi,” he told her as they rounded the brew house and headed towards the barn, Fireflash zipping and darting to and fro around them. “But the last thing it is, is a place.”

“What about your house?” she challenged.

“I do love my house, Anayi, I won’t deny that, but that’s all it is. A house. What makes it a home are the people inside of it, and the lives that we live in it. I don’t think the people in your house make you feel like it’s a home. The Wikuni have a saying, Anayi. They say ‘a house is a house, with wife, cat, and mouse, but a ship is a home, it’s where you live when you roam.’ A home is where you live, Anayi, not where you sleep. Vagabonds and drifters discovered that a long time ago. ‘Home is where you make your fire,’ is what they say. I believe that.”

“But it is my home, Tarrin,” she told him. “I don’t know what I’d do if I were anywhere else.”

“Then I’d say you’ve lived too sheltered a life, and it’s time for you to see what it’s like to live outside the safety of the palace walls.”

“That’s easy for you to say.”

“It is,” he agreed. “But that may be because I left home a long time ago.”

“I wouldn’t know what to do with myself if I left home,” she told him.

“You said you wanted to learn Wizard magic,” he said. “I don’t think Shiika’s the only one on this world who can teach you.”

She looked down, her face lost in thought.

“So, has Shun taken care of Stragos Bane yet?”

“She hasn’t found him yet,” she answered. “The last we know, he was in Jerinhold, but now we don’t know. She’s looking for him as we speak.”

“Which one is she?”
“The black-haired one with the nasty smirk,” she answered.

“I remember her,” he said with a humorless chuckle. “She’s the one who clipped me.”

“She’s got a very bad temper.”

“I thought all Demons had a bad temper.”

“And I thought all Were-cats had a bad temper,” she countered, a bit defensively.

“We do,” he answered bluntly. “Even Kimmie. It takes more to set her off than any other Were-cat, but if you do, watch out, because she‘s just as nasty and vicious as any of the rest of us.”

“It’s hard to imagine Kimmie that way.”

“Trust me, you don’t want to see it.”

The farmhouse door opened, and his parents and Shiika filed out into the crisp morning air. “Come on, son, it’s time to go!” Eron called.

“Time to return to reality,” Anayi sighed.

“It’s a prison of your own making,” he told her as Fireflash landed on his shoulder, and they moved towards the house.

“I’ll think about it,” she promised.

The day out in Suld was quiet and enjoyable, which was what Tarrin wanted. They visited with Tomas and Janine for most of the morning, had a nice lunch, showed them Fireflash, and then Tarrin took Janette out with Fireflash and wandered the city. Everyone knew of Tarrin, so though there was quite a bit of staring and finger pointing, at least they all had the sense not to bother him. They left them alone as the two of them wandered the city, then ended up on the docks, as Janette excitedly pointed out each of the many ships and told him what kind of ship it was, whose flag it was flying, and she could tell if it was loaded or empty by how it was sitting in the water.

Tarrin was a bit surprised at how much Janette knew about ships. He knew that she was interested in the work her father did, and had been practicing accounting and letting Tomas teach her how to keep books, but her interest had bloomed into something more than a passing fancy. She was taking serious interest in every phase of being a merchant, of which the bookkeeping was only a part. Being a merchant was all Janette wanted to do now, and he was convinced that she was quite serious about it, and would remain so for the rest of her life.

Janine was going to be seriously annoyed…but then again, that was life. Mothers often were disappointed by the career choices of their children.

“Oh, and that one over there is a Wikuni raker!” she said excitedly from Tarrin’s shoulder, as he had her up on his shoulder so she had unfettered views of the docks. “You don’t see them very often, because they’re so narrow in the beam that they have trouble on open water in storms. And that one over there is a Shacèan galleon, like father’s!” she said, pointing across the docks. “It’s flying a Tellurian flag! You don‘t see many of those in Suld, that‘s for sure! And that‘s an Ungardt longship!” she said, pointing yet again. “We’ll see a lot of them now that the spring’s come, and their harbors have all melted! Can we go on it, Tarrin? Aunt Elke might know the captain!”

“I doubt it, but we might be able to manage a tour,” he told her. “Ungardt are very hospitable, if you know how to approach them.”

“Can we? Really?”

“We’ll see. If the captain’s drunk, we might have a problem.”

It turned out that the captain wasn’t drunk. He was a burly blond-haired man named Thurgunn, who looked way too young to be a ship captain. He was clean shaven, quite handsome, and wearing a mail shirt and horned helm with a pair of canvas sailor’s breeches and soft leather boots. He looked like he was about thirty, and Tarrin could see from the way Janette blushed when he came out to see them that he was quite a heartbreaker among the ladies.

“Well, judging by the fur and tail, I’d say you were the infamous Tarrin Kael,” he said brashly in Ungardt. “What can I do for you today?”

“My friend here wants to see an Ungardt longship,” he answered, bobbing Janette a little.

“Well, bring her aboard,” he answered with a sudden smile. “Did you know that we’re both clan? I live in Skalgaad.”

Skalgaard was a small village only a half a day south of Dusgaard, which was well within the clan territory of Tarrin’s hereditary Ungardt clan. “I thought I knew most of the ship captains.”

“I just took over this ship for Surtin Icebreaker,” he answered. “Old Surtin finally retired.”

“He did? He was, what, ninety years old?”

“Something like that. He died not two months after retiring, though,” he said sadly. “When he couldn’t handle the rigors anymore and had to stay behind, I think it broke his heart.”

“Old Surtir certainly had Saltemis’ blood in him,” Tarrin mused, remembering the crotchety old geezer, and referring to an old Ungardt saying about those Ungardt who would sail the seas until the day they died.

“May Dalstaad strike me dead before I’m too old to handle a tiller,” he said sincerely, then he waved towards the ship. “Welcome aboard. Let me show you around.”

Tarrin had been on quite a few longships in his life, but old Surtir’s ship was certainly one of the most interesting. It was an old vessel, and had quite a bit of character. That, and Surtir had carved designs and pictures of places he’d been, things he’d seen, and so forth on almost every bulwark and deck plank, making the ship a floating work of art. Surtir had taken his ship all over the world, even to the Utter East empire of Shen Lung, and every place he had gone was represented somewhere among the myriad of carved images decorating the vessel. His picture of Shen Lung was of one of their strange multi-storied towers with the tiled roof, what Keritanima had once called a pogoda. There wasn’t all that much to an Ungardt longship, for the crew slept on the deck and the areas below were committed almost entirely to cargo. When Thurgunn told Janette that, she looked around curiously. “What do you do when it rains?”

“We have bolts of canvas we hang off the mast and lash to the sides,” he answered. “Trust me, it keeps us dry as dust and warm as a baby in his mother’s arms.

“How much cargo can you carry?”

“That’s an odd question,” Thurgunn chuckled.

“She’s not your average girl,” Tarrin told him.

“Well, we can carry quite a bit,” he answered. “We have a shallow bilge, so we can carry about fifty standard bales of wool.”

“Wow,” Janette said. “That’s as much as a Torian coster. What kind of armament do you have?”

“Bows and strong arms on the oars,” he answered. “The only thing that can catch us on open water is a Wikuni ship. Not even Zakkite triads can keep up,” he said proudly.

“That’s not much,” she protested.

“Ungardt conduct ship warfare by ramming other ships, grappling them, then defeating the other crew in hand to hand combat,” Tarrin told her. “That’s why the fronts of the ships are so heavily reinforced, and most of them have ramming spikes that attach to the bow. If you have a strong crew, they can tear a hole in the side of a Wikuni clipper. And few ship crews on the twenty seas can beat an Ungardt boarding party.”

“Oh, I get it,” she said. “So, if I hire an Ungardt ship to move my goods, there’s a good chance it’s going to get there?”

“A very good chance,” Thurgunn said grandly. “In the forty years this ship has been on the sea, it’s never failed to deliver a cargo.”

“Not once?”

“Not once,” he assured her with a bright smile. “This ship may be old, but she’s as dependable as the tides.”

“What’s its name? Don’t all ships have names?”

“Some Ungardt ships don’t,” Tarrin told her. “New ships aren’t named until they’re at least a year old.”

“Why?”

“Why name it if it’s going to sink on its maiden voyage?” Thurgunn asked her with a sly wink.

“So what’s this ship’s name?”

“Surtir, the man who first owned her, called her Jezebel. I rather like it.”

“Jezebel? What kind of name is that?”

“It’s Arakite,” Tarrin told her. “It means seductress in Sulasian.”

“What’s a seductress?”

“A woman who tempts men,” Tarrin answered immediately. Tarrin didn’t believe in withholding information. If they were old enough to ask, they were old enough to hear the answer.

“Mother won’t let me learn Arakite,” Janette complained. “She says I should keep up with my Shacèan. She says it’s a prettier language.”

“It is, but if you want to be able to trade with anyone who lives east of Tor, you’ll need to learn Arakite,” Thurgunn told her. “Any ship captain worth his sword speaks Arakite.”

“You speak Arakite, Captain Thurgunn?” she asked sweetly.

“But of course, my dear,” he answered with an outrageous smile. “I don’t use a sword, but if I had one, I’d be worth it.”

She giggled and took Tarrin’s paw. “Can you teach me Arakite, Tarrin?” she asked.

“I’d be happy to,” he told her.

Fireflash’s claws dug into his shoulder, and the little drake started growling in his throat.

“What’s the matter, Fireflash?” he asked, looking down at the golden drake.

Tarrin looked over his own shoulder, and was surprised at the sight that greeted him. It was a lone armored figure that was about twice as tall as the awed pedestrians who gawked at him. The figure was wearing black armor that was pitted, battered, and bloodied, and he was carrying a massive, abused broadsword whose tip had been broken off. All the armor was missing from the figure’s left arm, exposing an awesomely muscled, dark-skinned arm that had strange white patches from the elbow up. There was only one armored being that was that huge that would be on the streets of Suld, and that would be Azakar. The fact that the figure was wearing the armor of the Knights assured Tarrin that it was who he thought it was.

What had Azakar been fighting? He had obviously won, but it had not been an easy battle.

“Stay here, little mother,” Tarrin told her quickly. “Thurgunn, don’t let her off the ship,” he told the captain in Ungardt, then stepped up onto the rail and vaulted over onto the quay. “Easy, little friend, that’s a friend,” Tarrin told the drake as it began to hiss.

“Tarrin,” Azakar said as the Were-cat quickly advanced up to the Knight.

“Zak, what’s going on?”

“We had a little visitor,” he said in his customary quiet tone. “Stragos Bane.”

Tarrin looked at him, then he chuckled. “Who sent you after him?”

“No one,” he answered. “I remembered the description Haley gave us in Amazar. I was just lucky to be wearing my armor when I saw him.”

“Did you take the body back to the Tower?”

“I couldn’t kill him,” the Knight said with a grunt. “He fled once he realized that he couldn’t beat me.”

“Are you alright?”

“I’ll live, Tarrin,” he answered. “Bane used some kind of magic that froze my shield and gave me frostbite. He hit my shield with his sword and it shattered my shield and the armor on my arm like it was glass.”

Tarrin put his paw over Azakar’s arm and wove a spell of healing, which attacked the frozen flesh and restored it to health.

“Thank you,” he said without much emotion.

“How was it?”

“Tough,” he answered. “Bane was a very skilled adversary. It took me nearly ten minutes to beat him down to where he turned and ran.” He held up his shield hand and opened it, presenting him with a wolfhead medallion. “I tore this off of him before he got away. This is what Haley said made him change shape.”

“Zak, how did we ever get along without you?” Tarrin asked with a laugh.

“Let’s hope we never have to find out,” he answered mildly.

Tarrin was not surprised. Azakar had more than his unchallenged size and awesome strength, he also had extensive training by some of the best warriors on Sennadar, and had an intimate understanding of magic and the techniques a warrior had to employ to counter its power. If there was one single-most fearsome human warrior in the entire world, it was Azakar. That he was capable of dealing with Stragos Bane was expected, not surprising.

“You should get back to the Tower and give that to Jenna as quickly as you can,” he told him. “I’m going to take Janette back to her parents and I’ll be there in a while.” He Conjured a new sword and shield, and handed them to him. “Just in case Bane comes back for that medallion,” he told him. “Or would you rather I go with you?”

“I’d rather you sent me back,” he answered. “Bane might have just backed off to try to catch me off guard, and I’m a little wary about going another round with him when I’m carrying one of his magical treasures. I don’t want him to take it back from me. I know you can Teleport me right to the Tower.”

“I should have thought of that,” Tarrin grunted, taking a step back. “I’ll send you to a room right beside Jenna’s office, alright?”

“That one they keep empty just for Teleportation?”

Tarrin nodded. “Hold on a second,” he said as he made a stronger touch against the Weave, then started weaving the spell of Teleportation. He was more than capable of using it in a way that it Teleported someone else rather than himself, wrapping it around Azakar and preparing to snap it down and activate it, which would send Azakar to the Tower instantly. “I’ll be there as soon as I get Janette home.”

“I’ll tell the Keeper,” he nodded, and then Tarrin snapped down the spell and released it.

Without so much as a shimmer, Azakar vanished.

“Janette!” Tarrin shouted. “We have to get back!”

“Aww!” she called. “I want to take a look at that raker!”

“If it’s here tomorrow, we will,” he promised her. “But something’s going on, and I have to get to the Tower and see what it is.”

It took him only a few moments to drop Janette off back at her home, then tell them what was going on. “I need to find out what happened,” he explained. “Fae-da’Nar has been trying to kill Stragos Bane, but if Zak had trouble doing it, it means they’ll be hard pressed to find someone that can.”

“Why do they want to kill this man?” Janette asked. “Isn’t that mean?”

“He’s been going around killing any Were-kin he can find, little mother,” Tarrin said grimly. “Since he started killing us first, we have every right to try to kill him back.”

“Azakar is that good?” Elke asked speculatively.

“He can beat me,” Tarrin answered with a nod.

“I’d say that’s plenty good enough,” Eron chuckled.

“I’m going with you, son,” Elke told him. “I want to give that book to Jenna, and I think I’d like to know what’s going on.”

“Well, Janine, I guess we’ll be taking a bow-out on that lunch,” Eron told her with a smile.

“I’ll have Deris wrap some of it up for you,” she answered. “You know how he hates for anyone to leave the house without eating.”

“I won’t object, that’s for sure,” Eron agreed with a smile.

Tarrin was more curious than worried as they went to the Tower, at least until he was in Jenna’s office with his parents, Ianelle, and Azakar. He listened as the Mahuut Knight recanted the battle he had with Stragos Bane, as Azakar had restarted when Tarrin arrived.

“I saw him in Beggar’s Market,” he began as Tarrin sat down in a chair he Conjured for himself. “I was there looking for a birthday present for Ulger. Something suitable.”

“Beggar’s Market? Isn’t that where the whores gather?” Jenna asked curiously.

Azakar cleared his throat. “I was going to buy Ulger a whalebone corset.”

Jenna almost fell out of her chair laughing. “Zak!” she gasped after catching her breath. “What on Sennadar does he need that for!?”

“It’s a joke, Keeper,” he said seriously. Tarrin often forgot that Azakar had an understated sense of humor, and was known to be a rogue prankster. A very strange thing, given his quiet, unassuming nature. Few people knew it was Azakar who was doing it. “I’d just come off the field, training cadets, so I was wearing my armor and sword. Good thing, that,” he added.

“I spotted Bane across the market. At first, I didn’t recognize him, but I saw him again a few minutes later as he started stalking around the festhall Haley bought.”

“Wait a minute,” Tarrin said. “Haley’s in Suld?”

Jenna nodded. “He just arrived last ride. Got off a Wikuni ship with a chest full of gold. The first thing he did was buy a festhall off Beggar’s Market. Didn’t I tell you?”

“No, you didn’t,” he answered.

“I guess Bane was going to finish what they started in Dayisè with Haley. I ambushed Bane just before he went inside.” He was quiet a long moment. “Bane was everything Haley said he was. He was strong, fast, and he had some strong magic. But that’s not what I worry about.”

“What, then?” Jenna asked.

Darvon came in and quickly sat down on the couch by Jenna’s office door. “Stragos Bane didn’t bleed,” Azakar said bluntly. “I stabbed a span of sword blade through his breastplate and broke it off. I know it penetrated deep enough to go through his breastbone, but there was no blood. All this on me is mine,” he said, motioning at his bloody armor. “He never shed a single drop of blood. And when I did stab him, I got a shooting pain up my sword arm, because it was cold. That’s why I broke my sword. It was a reflex action after that cold hit me, I jerked away and broke my sword in the process.”

Tarrin frowned, scratching his chin with a span-long claw. He had no doubt about Azakar’s testimony, he would accept it all at face value. Azakar was very observant, and his observations were usually correct. That meant that this Stragos Bane was not what he appeared to be. That, or he had some kind of magic about him that caused the effect that Azakar described. Given the fact that he had a magic sword, magic armor, had had that magic amulet, and also had some kind of magic that defeated magical attacks used against him, the idea that he also possessed some kind of magical device that did what Azakar saw was not a stretch.

“Could he be some kind of magical monster?” Elke asked. “One of those outcasts from Fae-da’Nar?”

“I don’t know of any Fae-da’Kii that can do that, mother,” Tarrin answered her. “Unless Bane is a Vampire or a Lich. But if he was a Vampire, he couldn’t move around in the daytime. If he was a Lich, you could smell him from ten spans away.”

“Maybe he has magic that protects him from the sun, or hides his smell,” Jenna offered. “They said that Stragos Bane was supposed to be dead. Maybe he is dead, and what we’re dealing with here is some kind of undead creature.”

“Actually, that makes sense,” Eron said. “It would explain his strength and the fact that Azakar felt cold when he stabbed him. And that there was no blood,” he added.

Jenna’s eyes narrowed. “Haley said that just touching Bane was painful, even when using a sword. Could him being undead cause that? Maybe it has nothing to do with the fact that Haley’s a Were-wolf. Maybe it’s because Bane is undead.”

“Triana said Druids tried using magic on him,” Tarrin added. “Druidic magic in its pure form won’t work against undead. Maybe that’s this magical immunity he has!”

“It won’t?” Jenna asked in surprise.

Tarrin shook his head. “Druidic magic is the magic of life. If you use it as spell energy, it has no effect on the undead. If you use it indirectly, you can hurt an undead, like dropping a building on one, like Haley did. But if Haley tried to directly use a spell against Bane, if he is undead, it would have fizzled. That’s the balance against Druidic magic.”

He got several blank looks.

“Every order of magic has a weakness, a check on its power,” he explained to his parents, Azakar, and Darvon. “Sorcery can be nullified by Druidic magic. Wizards and Priests can be stopped by Sorcerers. But what stops Druids are undead. Negative energy cancels Druidic magic. There are even a special kind of Wizard spells, called Necromancy, that can do the same thing, because they draw on the death-magic that makes undead what they are. Negative energy doesn‘t exist in the All, and because of that, the All has no effect on it.”

“I never knew that,” Eron said in surprise.

“Druids don’t advertise it, father,” Tarrin told him. “You don’t shout out your weaknesses in the city square.”

“So, we might be able to conclude with some reason that Stragos Bane is undead,” Darvon called from the couch. “If that’s true, how do we stop him?”

“We need Priests,” Jenna and Tarrin said immediately. “Priests have power over the undead,” Jenna told him. “My Lord General, would you be so kind as to pay a visit to High Priest Thorin for me a little later? You know how the order of Karas feels about us. It might be better if it came from you.”

“I’d be honored, Keeper,” he answered, stroking his white moustache absently. “As soon as we have a plan to deal with this threat that I can take to Thorin.”

“We’re going to need a plan,” Azakar stated bluntly. “If Bane is undead, he’s a very powerful kind of one. We don’t want to just chase after him with a stick, or he‘s going to kill people before we destroy him. We need a good plan.”

Azakar didn’t see the look of intense pride on Darvon’s face, since Azakar had his back to him.

“A trap,” Jenna agreed with a nod.

“I can--”

“You’ll go home, son,” Eron told him bluntly. “If we’re wrong, and Bane does have special power against Were-kin, then you’re going to be vulnerable.”

“But--”

“But nothing,” Darvon told him. “You don’t have to be personally involved in everything, Tarrin. We can handle this. Besides, as I recall, you have lessons to take, so you don’t have time for this, do you?”

Tarrin frowned.

“You can’t protect everyone all the time, son,” Darvon told him seriously. “As Lord General, I’m ordering you to stay out of this. Azakar was the one that brought us this information, so I’m going to let Azakar handle taking care of Stragos Bane.”

“Me, my Lord General?” he asked in shock, whirling around to face him. “But I’m--”

“That’s an order,” he said in a tone that would brook no argument. “I charge you with the task of eliminating Stragos Bane, Knight-Captain Azakar Kanash. You will discharge your orders as a true Knight and a warrior of Karas.”

Azakar’s face was stony, and Tarrin could tell he was not too happy about this command.

“You have my authority to arrange whatever you need to take care of Bane,” he added. “And I’m sure the Keeper will lend a hand if it’s needed.”

“Of course,” she agreed with a smile. “The Knights protect us, and for that we are grateful. When the time comes to grant you our aid, we jump at the opportunity.”

“It wasn’t always that way,” Darvon said with a sly smile.

“Well, it is now,” Jenna told him, tossing her dark hair over her shoulder flippantly.

“You have a job to do, Knight,” Darvon told Azakar imperiously. “Why are you sitting here?”

Azakar stood. “By your leave?” he asked politely to Jenna, but Tarrin could tell it was through clenched teeth.

“Certainly,” she told him fondly. “And if you need anything, just let me know. You have the resources of the entire Tower at your command to deal with Stragos Bane.”

Azakar pressed his lips together tightly, saying nothing. He bowed to Jenna, turned and bowed to Darvon, and then stalked out of Jenna’s office like a man just sentenced to execution.

Darvon stood. “By your leave, Keeper, I have a few matters to attend.”

“Certainly, Darvon. Just don’t get to close to Zak. He looks like he wants to slap you right now,”she winked. “Mother, did you bring my book?”

“Tarrin, come with me,” Darvon ordered. Tarrin stood immediately and waved to his family, and then followed the aged commander out of the room. Tarrin had tremendous respect for Darvon, and for that reason he obeyed the old Knight without question most of the time. It was obvious that he had something on his mind, and Tarrin actually wanted to hear what it was. Darvon was very wise, and Tarrin had never regretted listening to him.

They walked along the highly ornate and decorated halls of the top levels of the Tower, where all the most important and powerful individuals either had offices or apartments, but they weren’t alone for too long Ianelle caught up with them not long after leaving the Keeper’s office, falling into pace beside Darvon as Tarrin walked on his other side. “It was becoming a family reunion,” she explained. “I don’t have to be there for that.”

“You were awfully quiet, Ianelle,” Tarrin noticed. “In fact, you never said a word.”

“I am sorry, honored one, but I’ve been preoccupied lately,” she answered him.

“What did Auli do now?”

Ianelle looked at him, then laughed. “Being Auli. I think she’s trying to get me to die of old age.”

That was a Sha’Kar term much akin to a human saying she’s giving me gray hair. “Is she still in Sharadar?”

She nodded. “Alexis is trying to force me to take her back. I won’t hear of it.”

Darvon chuckled. “Send her to me. I’ll take it out of her, Ianelle.”

Ianelle gave Darvon a wild look, then laughed. “I just may take you up on that offer, my Lord General,” she told him. “I didn’t know you speak Sha’Kar.”

“Of course I do. I was taught it when we went to Sharadar, and then to Amazar.”

“Ah. So you did.”

They reached the stairs, and started down. “Well, Tarrin, what do you think of me putting Azakar in charge?” he asked.

“I think he’s more than capable of it,” he answered. “You have some other motive, don’t you?”

Darvon nodded. “I’m getting old, Tarrin,” he admitted. “Every day, this armor gets heavier and heavier, and I have more and more trouble getting into it in the morning. I’m going to retire next year.”

That surprised both Tarrin and Ianelle. “Who’s taking your position?”

“I don’t know,” he answered. “The Knights don’t choose the Lord General. Karas does. When I retire, the Knights will meet in the cathedral for the ceremony of succession, and take turns picking up the Hammer of Karas. When it glows blue, it means that Karas has chosen that Knight to lead.”

Ianelle gave Darvon a sly look. “You want Azakar,” she realized. “You’re training him to take your place.”

“Azakar would be an excellent Lord General,” Darvon stated confidently. “He’s wise, clever, observant, and knows how politics work. But on the other hand, he’s compassionate, gentle, honest, caring, has a sense of humor, and is very humble. Those are excellent qualities in a leader, because it means he’ll take care of the men he commands.” He shited his arm greave absently with his other hand. “I’ve been assigning him to duties that puts him in command, and so far, he’s done rather well. He hates commanding others, but all the Knights I’ve talked with that have been under his command say nothing but good things about him. I gave him this mission to give him a serious test. I want to see what he comes up with, and how he executes it.”

“And if he fails?” Ianelle asked.

“Then he fails,” Darvon answered. “Sometimes failure can be a better learning experience than success. If he does, I want to see how he handles it.”

“I’m pretty confident in Azakar, but there’s no guarantee he’s going to get Bane,” Tarrin told him. “If Bane is undead, he may have some other tricks that let him escape from Azakar. If Zak even gets a shot at him.”

Darvon looked at him.

“I made an agreement with Shiika, on behalf of the Druids,” he told him. “Shiika set one of her Alu daughters on Bane’s trail. If she catches him first, Azakar may not have the chance.”

“Why didn’t you tell Jenna?” Darvon asked.

“Because it slipped my mind,” he admitted ruefully. “Shiika’s daughter is still looking for him, and with everything else that happened, I honestly forgot to mention it.”

Darvon chuckled. “It’s alright, Tarrin. It happens to us all.”

“It does indeed,” Ianelle agreed.

After a nice chat with Darvon and getting caught up with Ianelle, who often kept him abreast of the information that Jenna didn’t think to pass along--most of it concerning Jenna herself--Tarrin decided to watch the cadets practice with Ulger and several Knights watching as Darvon went to recover a ceremonial shield he wanted Allia to have, to commemorate her membership in the order of the Knights of Karas. Tarrin’s family joined him not too long afterward, and Tarrin suddenly remembered a long-made promise.

“Mother,” he called calmly. “How are you feeling today?”

“What do you mean?” she asked.

“See that Knight right there? The one with the nasty scar over the bridge of his nose?”

“Ulger?” she asked. “I’ve met him a couple of times.”

“When we were in Amazar, Ulger said that no woman could ever beat him in a fight,” he told her. “I told him you could beat him around the field with one arm tied behind your back.”

“Is that so?” she asked with a sudden wolfish smile, then she put her left hand on her right shoulder and started working her arm in circles, loosening it up. “Be a good boy and fetch my axe, Tarrin.”

Eron gave Tarrin a sudden sly look. “Do you have something against Ulger, son?” he asked.

“No, I just want Ulger to get an, education,” he answered, absently reaching out and Summoning his mother’s double-headed axe, appearing in his paw as his fingers closed over empty air. “You want your shield, mother?”

“Against him? I won’t need it,” she snorted as she advanced out onto the sandy training field. “Ulger!” she shouted. “Tarrin promised a match with you! I’m here to collect!”

“Well, if it isn’t Mistress Elke Kael!” Ulger called. “I do seem to recall a challenge he issued in Amazar, and here I thought all this time you were too afraid to face me on the field!”

Eron winced. “Oh, he just dug his own grave,” he said.

“Talk is easy,” Elke said gratingly, raising her axe and pointing its twin heads in Ulger’s direction. “Move these children out of the way and take your beating like the airbag you are.”

“Cadets, aside!” Kargon shouted from the far side of the field. “It’s time to watch and learn!”

Elke strolled out to the center of the sand-filled field and waited as cadets moved to form a ring around the field, and Ulger strutted out to face her, lazily drawing his sword. “I should take off my armor,” he called arrogantly, though he was grinning broadly.

“Keep it. That way you won’t lose any limbs,” Elke retorted, which made Kargon laugh.

Ulger reached the center of the field, and set his shield just before clapping down his visor. “I’ll be gentle,” he promised.

“I won’t,” Elke replied with a blunt, slightly sadistic tone.

Tarrin crossed his arms before him as Ulger got into a guard stance, as Ianelle came up beside him and his father shouted a few words of encouragement to his wife. “Does Ulger stand a chance?” she asked.

“No,” Tarrin and Eron said in unison.

Ulger was lilting, almost negligent at first, flicking his heavy broadsword at Elke without too much energy, but Tarrin had the feeling that Ulger was only feeling Elke out. Elke slapped the sword aside with the flat of her axe, not moving more than was necessary, not even shifting her feet. Then, as if satisfied by his probes, he sliced the point of his sword right at Elke’s midsection with sudden speed, but his eyes widened slightly when Elke used her axe to deflect the weapon just slightly, then stepped aside and let the weapon go by, then pressed the sword‘s blade with the flat of her axe and held it out wide, preventing Ulger from threatening her with it without completely withdrawing it. She turned slightly on her back foot and brought up her free arm, then reared back and slammed her elbow into the side of Ulger’s helmet. There was a musical clang, and Ulger’s helmet skewed slightly to the side as he staggered back. Elke shifted her grip on her axe and rushed in as Ulger tried to right his helmet, rearing back and smashing the flat against the top of the helmet. There was a loud clong, and Ulger pitched backwards and fell flat on his back, his right arm twitching.

“Ouch,” Ianelle said lowly.

“Ulger has a hard head,” Tarrin told her. “He’ll shake it off in a few seconds.”

“Give a fellow a chance, will you?” Ulger laughed after a grunt as he sat up.

“Mercy is for the dead,” Elke said brutally. “Stop playing, or I‘ll put another dent in your head. Get up and fight.”

“How do you know I’m playing?” he asked as he got up and twisted his hemlet back into position.

“I don’t get spinters in my feet anymore,” Elke said in disgust, using an Ungardt idiom meaning that she wasn’t a novice.

“Alright, you asked for it,” he said as he set his shield and advanced.

Ulger was a well-trained Knight. He was trained to deal with a wide variety of opponents, from half-equipped brigands to warriors as expertly trained as the Wikuni Marines, the Arakite Legions, or the Sulasian Rangers. Ulger could handle almost any opponent, from the conventional human warrior to the exotic monsters, such as Goblinoids. But he had never fought someone like Elke Kael. Not even Allia fought in the same style as Tarrin’s mother, for she was Ungardt to the roots of her hair, and she fought in the pure fighting style of her people. The Ungardt were a people who liked big, heavy weapons, wore no armor heavier than a mail shirt, and were extensively trained for fighting hand to hand without weapons. But the major difference between Allia’s fighting style, or even Tarrin’s fighting style, was that they either fought with weapons or without, where Elke used her free hand often as she used her axe. Ulger was completely overwhelmed in the first minute of the fight, because the first time he tried a serious slash at Elke’s vulnerable midsection, she had stepped into his swing and grabbed his wrist in her free hand. Ulger had never considered the possibility that a foe would grapple him like that. His second shock came when he tried to wrest free of her, but Elke’s grip was like steel, and she was easily as strong as he was. That set him on his heels almost immediately, and by the time he managed to get free of her, she’d used the edge of her axe to crush several deep dents into the top rim of Ulger’s shield.

That was the Ungardt style. Ungardt grappled foes as often as they used their weapons, turning a fight with an Ungardt into something as much a wrestling match holding weapons as it was a duel between armed opponents. Ulger had never faced a tactic like this before, and was quite at a loss as to how to defend himself against it. Every time Elke grabbed hold of him, she managed to put deep rents in his armor or do more damage to the circumference of his shield before he could manage to escape her clutches. Ulger was a fencer, who preferred to beat down his opponent’s defenses with skill and then finish them off, and that meant he very much favored putting his opponent on the defensive. But he never managed to establish an offensive footing against Elke, who had shocked him at the onset of the fight and had never relinquished her advantage.

It was a pointed lesson to those watching. Ulger struggled to protect himself against the mighty Ungardt, having pulled into a completely defensive stance, not even using his sword and shield any more than necessary to protect himself from Elke’s lightly swung axe and grabbing hands. That too seemed to confuse Ulger, and Tarrin knew why. Most warriors saw the axe as the weapon of brutes and the unskilled, who swung the heavy weapon wildly in battle, trying to hit people as hard as they possibly could and let the axe’s heavy weight do the damage for them. But when used properly, an axe was a deadly weapon of finesse and skill, just as effective as a sword. Elke whipped that heavy axe around like a dagger, holding it choked up on the haft for balance, using both of its heads to parry and block Ulger’s sword, even the top--which was why Elke didn‘t have a thrusting spike on her axe. Once, she pinned Ulger’s sword between the top points of the two heads and twisted the axe in a jerking motion, a move Tarrin knew was an attempt to break Ulger’s sword. It didn’t break it, but the move did bend Ulger’s sword noticeably. Elke would hold the axe in a choked grip for fencing, then let the weapon slide down her grasp and hold its end when she wanted power. When she held the axe by its end, it impacted Ulger’s armor with stunning force, but Elke did not overextend a finger, capable of pulling her weapon back before Ulger had a chance to retaliate with his sword or shield.

As if her grappling wasn’t bad enough, Ulger found out very quickly why the Ungardt did not wear armor. Because it gave them mobility. The unencumbered Ungardt danced around the armored Knight lightly, making him look like a turtle beset by a wolf, incapable of any defense other than pulling into his protective shell and hoping that it was enough to turn aside the wolf’s jaws. Elke endlessly circled the harried Knight, constantly trying to get outside the range of vision his visored helmet would allow, slapping aside his weapon whenever it made some feeble attempt to attack her while continuing to batter at his shield with her axe. It was a favored tactic among Ungardt, trying to destroy the opponent’s shield, and something Tarrin had used against Jegojah in their final battle.

It was completely one-sided. When Ulger wasn’t wrestling to keep Elke from tearing his sword out of his hands, he was getting pounded by her axe, most of the time never seeing it coming, since she managed to get outside the range of his vision. Elke systematically beat Ulger senseless with the flat of her axe, striking him on the helmet again and again, until it was obvious to everyone that the Knight was completely defenseless. Ulger swayed dangerously on his feet, and his eyes, visible through his visor, were dazed and unfocused. But not even that was enough to make Elke relent. She stepped back, grabbed her axe in both hands, and then chopped down into Ulger’s shield with every ounce of power she had. The half-moon blade of the axe penetrated the steel shield, its bottom edge just barely missing Ulger’s arm, and she yanked to the side, tearing the shield out of Ulger’s weakened grip. With the shield still stuck to the axe head and with a shout of effort, Elke reversed the weapon and slammed axe and shield into Ulger’s shoulder and head. The shield tore free and went sailing over Ulger’s head, spinning like a flipped coin, and Elke’s axe head penetrated Ulger’s helmet, shearing off the front quarter and taking the visor with it. The head of the axe missed Ulger’s forehead by the barest of margins, but the bottom edge cut a furrow across the tip of Ulger’s nose.

Ulger dropped to the sandy ground, his eyes glazed and blood flowing liberally from his nose.

Elke looked down at him a moment, then slid the axe in her grip until she held it just under the head. “Tell him I’m not paying for a new shield and helmet,” she announced to the watching Knights, then she turned and marched back to her husband and son.

“That was impressive, Lady Elke,” Ianelle said in halting Sulasian. Ianelle knew the language, but rarely spoke it.

“It was too short,” Elke snorted in reply. “Well, son, I need to get home. I’m going to bake Jenna a couple of sugarroot cakes.”

“Alright.”

“Is that Knight going to be alright?” Ianelle asked as the others swarmed around him, and one called for a Sorcerer.

“A few weeks in bed will fix him,” Elke answered professionally. “I went easy on him.”

Ianelle gave her a startled look, then laughed delightedly. “I would not have guessed.”

“Trust me,” Tarrin told her as he motioned for her to step back. Fireflash hopped over to his other shoulder to continue looking at Ulger. “Mother went very easy on him. Watch your claws, little one,” Tarrin told Fireflash mildly as his claws started sinking into his shoulder.

“Anything you wish me to tell Jenna?” Ianelle asked.

“Not really,” Tarrin answered. “No, wait. Tell her to tell Tomas and Janine that I’m going to pick up Janette tomorrow morning and take her out. I have a promise to keep to her.”

“I will tell her. So, I will see you tomorrow?”

“I doubt it. I don’t think I’m coming here.”

“Then I will see you when I see you.”

“Put your foot down with Auli,” he told her.

“Oh, I certainly intend to do just that,” she said in a flinty tone.

Tarrin chuckled as he wove the spell of Teleportation that would take them home. And in a wavering flash, Tarrin, Elke, Eron, and Fireflash disappeared.